Thursday, March 18, 2010

Obama not worried about "procedure" in House or Senate

Rep. Parker Griffith, M.D. (R-Ala.) switched parties recently to escape the far-left policies of the House Democratic leadership. The newly-minted Republican is set to lead efforts to force an up-or-down vote on a resolution requiring an up-or-down vote on the Senate health care bill.

This is hand-to-hand fisticuffs, parliamentary-style, as minority Republicans battle the 76-seat Democrat majority on procedure while Democrats battle the American people on substance.

If passed by the House, the resolution would prohibit Speaker Pelosi from implementing the “Slaughter Solution” scheme by which House Democrats seek to “deem” the Senate health care bill as passed without an actual vote on it in the House.

Republicans cannot force a vote on the actual resolution but they can force a vote on having a vote. Given the toxic political climate on Capitol Hill right now -- and people nationwide paying more attention than ever to parliamentary process through the internet, cable news and talk radio -- the vote on whether or not to vote on the resolution could have political consequences for Democrats.

Proposed text:

RESOLUTION

Ensuring an up or down vote on certain health care legislation.

Resolved, That the Committee on Rules may not report a rule or order that provides for disposition of the Senate amendments to H.R. 3590, an Act entitled The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, unless such rule or order provides for—

(1) at least one hour of debate, equally divided and controlled by the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader, or their designees; and

(2) a requirement that the Speaker put the question on disposition of the Senate amendments and that the yeas and nays be considered as ordered thereon.

71 comments:

Mike Pence confirms Doug's own supposition on the Deem and Pass issue:

THE WIT AND WISDOM OF MIKE PENCE.... House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the #3 official in the House GOP leadership, spoke to The Daily Caller about some of the procedural questions surrounding health care reform.

So, for example, we see this exchange:

The Daily Caller: Yesterday you said the self-executing rule was unconstitutional. Is that correct?

Mike Pence: Well I think it's probably unconstitutional. I know that there are leading legal scholars who believe it is unconstitutional. My background in law and constitutional issues suggests to me it's unconstitutional.

Which was followed soon after by this exchange:

The DC: My question is, though, that Democrats say you voted for self-executing rules yourself on three occasions.

MP: Yeah, sure.

Oh my.

Pence added that if the House approves the Senate bill and a reconciliation budget fix through "deem and pass," then the House will have passed the Senate bill "without ever voting on it" -- suggesting he doesn't really understand what the self-executing rule is.

Pence went on to say that the Senate bill, even if it's signed into law, "cannot be fixed by reconciliation." To bolster this bizarre assertion, he pointed to ... nothing in particular.

As for the constitutionality question, and the fact that Pence has voted for self-executing rules several times, I also enjoyed this exchange:

The DC: It's an issue of the magnitude of the legislation?

MP: I think that's part of it.

I see. The constitutionality of a procedural rule in the House is dependent on whether Mike Pence thinks the rule is being applied to a "big" bill or not.

So, really, this whole process brouhaha is directed at those swing Democrats, attempting to scare them into bringing down the bill. Because, if Republicans really thought that passage of health care reform was going to be bad for Dems, would they be protesting quite so much right now? As Republicans used to say before the 2004 elections defending Medicare Part D, it's hard to spend hundreds of billions of dollars expanding health care coverage and not have it be a net positive in the polls.

Sean Hannity has characterized Congress as "institutionalized corruption". It's hard to argue with that as we see members of Congress being bribed or blackmailed into supporting the so called Health Care reform.

It's interesting that Obama and Axelrod have called for an up or down vote while ignoring Deem and Pass.

The White House has renewed its threat to veto the fiscal 2010 intelligence authorization bill over a provision that would force the administration to widen the circle of lawmakers who are informed about covert operations and other sensitive activities.

When the bill passed the House on Feb. 25, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), hailed it for improving "congressional oversight by strengthening certain disclosure requirements of intelligence activities to the House and Senate intelligence committees." Lawmakers had spent the previous six months working out provisions that the White House still opposes.

Under the House plan, which is similar to one passed by the Senate, the White House would have to inform all members of both intelligence committees of the "main features" of activities disclosed in detail to the Gang of Eight -- the speaker and minority leader of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, and the chairmen and ranking minority members of the Senate and House intelligence committees.

In a letter sent to the senior members of the intelligence panels, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter R. Orszag said Gang of Eight notifications are made in only "the most limited of circumstances" affecting "vital interests" of the United States, arguing that the new requirement would "undermine the president's authority and responsibility to protect sensitive national security information."

Orszag also opposed a Senate bill provision that required notification of "any change in a covert action," which he described as setting up "unreasonable burdens" on the agencies, particularly the CIA . The House bill also requires notification of intelligence "significant undertakings," a term that Orszag described as "vague and uncertain."

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), ranking minority member of the House intelligence panel, noted that the White House objections were similar to those raised by Republicans, especially regarding notifications provisions.

[...]

That's right, Peter. The President is our friend.

And don't even THINK about cutting tens of millions at ODNI, because its travails of late aside (to include the VERY narrow avoidance of the loss of the current Director) it is gaining some serious steam.

On Wednesday, a group representing 59,000 Catholic nuns plus more than 50 heads of religious congregations issued a strong statement urging "a life-affirming ‘yes' vote" in support of the Senate bill. "While it is an imperfect measure, it is a crucial next step in realizing health care for all," the statement said, adding that the bill's support for pregnant women represented "the real pro-life stance."

"We as sisters focus on the needs of people," said Sister Simone Campbell, a spokeswoman for the group. "When people are suffering, we respond."

Well, let's see. I was asleep by 10:30 and woke up at 3:00. Unable to return to sleep, I got up at 4:00 and was surprised to see that you had already opened the bar.

I read the link on the Israeli settlements. I would remind everyone that Israel removed Jewish settlers (by force when required) from Gaza. How did that work out? I am not trying to excuse poor decisions made under duress although given the history of the area and the tendencies of waxing Islam, I lean toward the Israelis.

I can't get worked up over Eretz Israel and Zionism when I see how the Koran and the Muslim world treats religious minorities, women and others. It's my belief that Islam, militant Islam, fundamentalist Islam, whatever you want to call it, is the root of the problem. Until that problem is addressed, we're just tilting at windmills.

Obviously, so does the author. And yet his eyes are wide open to the legal and moral issues of the settler movement.

And if the problem isn't going away for the Israelis, it's not going away for us either - as Dave Petraeus explained a second time in his testimony yesterday.

Wretchard actually said something halfway sensible on this, before immediately descending into his usual insane hackery: We have inherited through the GWOT a huge Muslim "constituency." We are, in other words, standing almost literally neck deep in those for whom the Palestinian issue is genuinely an animating one.

rat: While the removed the settlers, they did no lift the blockade, thusly, they never have ended the Occupation of Gaza or the civil war the Israeli government is engaged in against the residents, there.

there was no blockade until HAMAS, the elected government of Gaza, supported by the USA, invaded, murdered and kidnapped Israelis

Egypt shares border and is the ancient well spring that gaza comes from.

Rockets fired, that number in the thousands, come from Gaza and residents. That is an act of war.

If only Israel would blockade the strip and stop the thousands of truckloads of food, water, fuel and medicine that come into gaza on a daily basis.

This ongoing Middle East calamity is the most diproportionate use of resources ever.

Thu Mar 18, 08:04:00 AM EDT

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Our foreign and defense policy establishment is very Middle East centric. Going on 5 decades now.

For two years we listened to some outrageously talented Latin America specialists express their sincere regret at not yet having done the Middle East pony ride. THAT is a crying shame, but a reflection of what can only be termed an even further increase in the status of that region in the national security hierarchy over the past ten years.

I see no real change on the horizon, except at the margins wrt the IC.

trish: I'll be honest. At this point, I'm inclined to conclude that Pat Lang is onto something when says that Americans think of Israel as an ally; Israel does not consider us one in any substantial way.

Israel views America as an ally, however Israel also understands that America thinks of America 1st. As all nations do...

America has poured trillions into Israel's enemies. From oil, aid and military bases that supported terrible governments to protecting the oil lanes with naval protection. MUCH of the conflict in the middle east would evaporate in a nanosecond if OIl were not in the mix...

American aid to Israel is for it's military. Israel needs helps since her enemies are supported by America, her arms and her cash. In instances where it's not direct cash, we allow the opec members to buy and sell with American protection.

America has not always been Israel's primary ally..

Let's us not forget how it was not America that helped Israel in it's 1st days but (believe it or not) the french and czechoslovakia. Remember 1956? the french and british and israel fighting nasser and the israel's trying to stop bedouin attacks from gaza (this was before the egyptians took the label "palestinian"

America was also not there as an ally in 1966/7

ALL nations must think for themselves 1st....

Israel as well as America.

If America thinks Israel is against her interests, AMerica will throw Israel under the bus...

My personal point of view? If America throws Israel under the bus because of a few hundred square acres of land that is disputed? America will become something Obama will be proud of. And the world will not be the same after that...

Probably more than any other State Department official, Kurtzer has been instrumental in promoting the goals of the Palestinians and in raising their grievances to the center of the U.S. policymaking agenda. It was Kurtzer who, as a speechwriter for former Secretary of State James Baker, coined the term "land for peace." Kurtzer has never been a popular figure in Israel. Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir referred to Kurtzer and two colleagues as "Baker's little Jews."

Kurtzer was also a key figure in the decisions that led to the recognition of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Yasser Arafat as the legitimate and sole representative of the Palestinian people. A decision that has brought about much violence and despair and is a source of many of the problems that that still roil the region.

US Centcom chief Gen. David Petraeus"Israel is one of our closest allies and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that's not going to go away," said President Barack Obama to Fox News Wednesday, March 17, after denying any crisis in the relationship. DEBKAfile's Washington sources note that denial makes a lot of sense for the president because it lets him off the hook for dealing with it. However, in Jerusalem, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu called his inner cabinet into its second session on the crisis that same night. The seven ministers were asked to review the situation after President Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton turned down their initial proposals for easing the upset and laid down three pre-conditions for restoring normal relations with Jerusalem:1. The Netanyahu government must extend the 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction to include East Jerusalem;2. When the moratorium runs out in September, it must be renewed for the duration of peace negotiations with the Palestinians;3. Israeli must make more concessions to the Palestinian Authority and its chairman Mahmoud Abbas.The Israeli government was informed that until those conditions were met, its ministers would not be received in Washington by high-level American officials - a virtual boycott, which downgrades the normal diplomatic, strategic and security exchanges between the two administrations to the level of senators and the special Middle East envoy George Mitchell.Netanyahu tried offering the Obama administration a number of compromise proposals, such as the suspension of construction in East Jerusalem and the city's outlying Jewish suburbs until September, but they were rejected, as was an offer to prohibit further Jewish purchases of land and buildings in Jerusalem's Arab districts during peace negotiations.Obama and Clinton made it clear they would brook no departures from their three demands, which Israel is required to treat as an ultimatum.Neither party to the difference has mentioned the US administration's fourth condition for resuming normal relations: an Israeli commitment to refrain from attacking Iran's nuclear program without prior US consent. Because that commitment has not been offered, administration officials are continuing to hammer Israel in every possible arena. Indeed, the gloves are now off in earnest for insinuations that Israel's settlement policy is the root-cause of Iran's drive for a nuclear bomb and of the conflicts endangering American lives in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.Vice President Joe Biden launched this drive, when he reportedly attacked Netanyahu for the announcement of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem by saying: "What you are doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan."A much-admired American military figure, CENTCOM chief, Gen. David Petraeus, was the next US official to put this linkage into words. In his briefing to a Senate panel, he said Wednesday, March 16: Clearly the tensions on these issues [with Israel] have enormous effect on the strategic context in which we operate in the Central Command's area of responsibility."The general denied he had as yet formally asked for the Palestinian territories to be transferred to his command, but added: "In fact, staff members at various times have discussed asking for the Palestinian territories to be added to CENTCOM's turf."

DEBKAfile's military sources explain that, if approved, this step would be tantamount to providing the Palestinians with an American military umbrella against Israel.More than one friend of Israel demurred against the Petraeus suggestion.Former presidential candidate, Republican Senator John McCain, caught on fast to the way the wind is blowing in Obama's Washington: During his testimony, he put in: "Isn't the issue not the issue of settlements as much as it is the existence of the state of Israel…? So maybe you could put it all into the larger context of what needs to be done to reduce tensions on the US's closest ally and friend in many respects."The general did not rise to the senator's challenge, except for a polite: "Absolutely true."Some of the more respectable US and British media are playing up the theme that Israel has shot itself in the foot and therefore deserves what's coming, namely escalating punishment from the Obama administration.

As I was reading that article you linked trish I was thinking WiO should read it (and Whit) but I also thought he'd dismiss it as some sort of biased propaganda. True to form he did. The Zionism is strong and animates much of Israeli life. And Whit, sorry to say, but your objections amount to 'I hate Muslims more'. Sad, really, because I think the current situation with the Palestinians - their 'bad behavior' (terrorism ect.) is an expected outcome after dealing with the treatment they've received at the hands of the Israelis (imagine what you would do if your home were bulldozed by an armored Israeli bulldozer in the shadow of a new Israeli settlement on the hilltop overlooking you). You get a nasty feedback loop and, as trish noted, it animates much of the behavior in all of the Middle East and we are neck deep in the place. I remember reading back in 1982 a book on foreign relations and the competition with the Soviets and how and why the Middle East was the central battleground for the geopolitics of the time. Seems we still have much interest in the place.

but hey, ain't it a joy being Karzai's little helpers? and Malaki's? and Netanyahu's? and ...

address the crime of 600,000 jews thrown out of their homes by the arab world, their property stolen in 1948

address the crime of the arab world for the wars in 1948, 1956 & 1967

address the crime of the arab world in not giving the palesitnians a state from 1948-1967

address the issue the pogroms in the arab world for 1000 years against the jews before 1968

then address the fact that Israel has 20% population that is arab and the other 640/650th of the middle east is jew free..

ash states: I think the current situation with the Palestinians - their 'bad behavior' (terrorism ect.) is an expected outcome after dealing with the treatment they've received at the hands of the Israelis (imagine what you would do if your home were bulldozed by an armored Israeli bulldozer in the shadow of a new Israeli settlement on the hilltop overlooking you). You get a nasty feedback loop

ash...

then what started the arabs murdering the Jews of Hebron in 1929?

what caused the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in 1942 siding with Hitler?

what caused arafat to try to blow up the national water carrier in 1966?

what caused the thousands of attacks for centuries by the arabs on the indigenous jews that lived in jerusalem?

what caused in 1948 thousands of jewish sites and schuls to be destroyed by jordanian troops?

what caused the Jordanians and the arab league to loot, pillage the mount of olives and used centuries old tomb stones to pave latrines with?

Long before Israel ever had a bulldozer...

It's really simple stupid

It's the fact that 300 million arabs cannot accept israel's right to be a jewish nation

649/650th of the middle east judenfree aint enough...

the arabs now comprise 20% of the 1/650th and that still aint enough

the arabs control the temple mountnot enough

it aint about border numbnuts....

it aint about cycle of violence...

it's about dhimmihood..

bullshit reports about 20 square miles of disputed land is an excuse...

Israel has accepted the UN partition in 1948, even though they were getting SCREWED OUT of thier historic rights. The arabs rejected the plan and lost the war..

The arabs refused offers for peace many time and have attacked to try to exterminate israel many times. And guess what? they keep getting less...

too bad...

in 1974 the arabs were famous for their NO

Under clinton offers for statehood were turned down by the palestinians...

Under bush...

turned down by the arabs...

Now today, Israel's expanding apartments and 7-11's is the reason no peace is here...

"There may be some truth in the criticism that Mr. Obama played a bit too much softball at the beginning, making prior concessions to China (postponing his meeting with the Dalai Lama) and Russia (abandoning the missile defence shield in east-central Europe) without getting anything in exchange. He is learning the hard way. Welcome notes of firmness have been heard in the relationship with China and, in the past few days, the administration has reacted with rare public anger to an Israeli affront.

But the largest single obstacle has nothing to do with Mr. Obama's character, ideology or team, nor with the rise of China, India or Brazil. It is the U.S. political system. This 21st-century perversion of a magnificent 18th-century invention now gives powers to interfere in foreign policy to a legislature that is deeply divided along partisan lines and a shameless aggregator of special interests.

The biggest problem for U.S. foreign policy is not Mr. Obama or Mr. Bush or China. It's Congress. Whether you look at trade, climate change, China or Iran, it is Congress where policy becomes entangled, distorted and stymied. If the U.S. really wants to meet the hopes of a world in which its own relative power is undoubtedly diminished, it should introduce four-year terms for members of the House of Representatives, reform political finance and curb the lobbyists who enjoy what Rudyard Kipling once called “power without responsibility: the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.”

Talkbacks (38) Israel warned of a harsh response on Thursday afternoon after a Thai greenhouse worker was killed when a Kassam rocket fired by Gaza terrorists exploded in the Netiv Ha’asara area.

The man, in his 30s, was evacuated to Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital, where doctors were forced to pronounce him dead.

A small Islamist faction calling itself Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack.In a statement e-mailed to reporters in Gaza, the al-Qaida-inspired faction said the attack was a response to Israel's "Judaization" of Islamic holy places in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank.

A second group, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, also later claimed responsibility.

Now we all know that ash and rat will blame Israel for that rocket attack since Israel started it all.

Ash and Rat do you care that a Thai worker was killed or is his death meaningless since Palestinians are allowed to be political and shoot firecrackers?

"But the largest single obstacle has nothing to do with Mr. Obama's character, ideology or team, nor with the rise of China, India or Brazil. It is the U.S. political system. This 21st-century perversion of a magnificent 18th-century invention now gives powers to interfere in foreign policy to a legislature that is deeply divided along partisan lines and a shameless aggregator of special interests.

The biggest problem for U.S. foreign policy is not Mr. Obama or Mr. Bush or China. It's Congress. Whether you look at trade, climate change, China or Iran, it is Congress where policy becomes entangled, distorted and stymied. If the U.S. really wants to meet the hopes of a world in which its own relative power is undoubtedly diminished, it should introduce four-year terms for members of the House of Representatives, reform political finance and curb the lobbyists who enjoy what Rudyard Kipling once called “power without responsibility: the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.”

I've often thought that terms limits for Congress would be a good thing. What I object to is some English twit through posts in a Canadian paper having the audacity to be instructing the US on their political system. One would think that he'd have plenty to write about closer to home.

This moron is supposed to be a historian and yet his biggest complaint seems to be that there are politics in the political system.

Perhaps The Sun was unable to publish Mr. Timothy Garton Ash' analysis of the British political system for some reason. Or perhaps they were unable to decide whether it was more appropriate to put it on page 2 (political) or page 3 (nude ladies).

At any rate, the best thing that can be said of British politics is that it is much more entertaining than most.

John Batchelor says that the Congressional Budget Office scoring on the very latest HC Reform Bill showed no deficit reduction...House leaders sent the scoring back to CBO for more "work."

Also, the water will soon be flowing again in California's central valley. The poor Delta Smelt have been dealt a bad hand as the Valley's two congressmen received their Nebraska payoffs. Although, to be fair, how could the Feds withhold the water when the Valley's unemployment is 40%? That's political suicide.

whit said...I don't hate Palestinian people; I know some who are wonderful but the PLA, Fatah, Hamas - that's a different matter.

How about the culture that praises with overwhelming majority the approval of suicide bombers?

You can get into a BIBLICAL discussion of how many decent people live in a city, you remember that book the BIBLE that the JEWS from Israel put together 3000 years ago? You remember those people who the PALESTINIANS deny the right to have a JEWISH state for, the ones those grand PALESTINIANS deny any historic roots for and if they do admit the JEWS are real then they condemn them to death....

WASHINGTON — The United States has diverted a shipment of bunker-busters designated for Israel. Officials said the U.S. military was ordered to divert a shipment of smart bunker-buster bombs from Israel to a military base in Diego Garcia. They said the shipment of 387 smart munitions had been slated to join pre-positioned U.S. military equipment in Israel Air Force bases."This was a political decision," an official said.

In 2008, the United States approved an Israeli request for bunker-busters capable of destroying underground facilities, including Iranian nuclear weapons sites. Officials said delivery of the weapons was held up by the administration of President Barack Obama.

Since taking office, Obama has refused to approve any major Israeli requests for U.S. weapons platforms or advanced systems. Officials said this included proposed Israeli procurement of AH-64D Apache attack helicopters, refueling systems, advanced munitions and data on a stealth variant of the F-15E.

"All signs indicate that this will continue in 2010," a congressional source familiar with the Israeli military requests said. "This is really an embargo, but nobody talks about it publicly."

Under the plan, the U.S. military was to have stored 195 BLU-110 and 192 BLU-117 munitions in unspecified air force bases in Israel. The U.S. military uses four Israeli bases for the storage of about $400 million worth of pre-positioned equipment meant for use by either Washington or Jerusalem in any regional war.

In January 2010, the administration agreed to an Israeli request to double the amount of U.S. military stockpiles to $800 million. Officials said the bunker-busters as well as Patriot missile interceptors were included in the agreement.

The decision to divert the BLU munitions was taken amid the crisis between Israel and the United States over planned construction of Jewish homes in Jerusalem. The administration, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has warned that Washington could reduce military aid to Israel because of its construction policy.

In 2007, after its war in Lebanon, Israel requested 2,000 BLU-109 live bombs from the United States. The 2,000-pound bomb, produced by Boeing and coupled with a laser guidance kit, was designed to penetrate concrete bunkers and other underground hardened sites.

Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, was quoted as saying that his country faced its biggest crisis with the United States since 1975. A pro-Israel lobbyist said Oren was referring to the current U.S. embargo, which echoed a decision taken 35 years ago by then-President Gerald Ford after Israel's refusal to withdraw from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Oren has since denied the remark.

So if America is cutting off Israeli perceived military needs, how long til Rat and Ash call it a slap in the face of the USA? How long til rat starts saying how ungrateful Israel is..

In fairness to "relatives and associates" of those directly implicated in paramilitary activities and narcotics enterprises, very few are those unrelated, by birth alone, to criminal undertakings past or present.

This is something that only the passing of a generation, along with the Colombians' increasing desire for *global* legitimacy, will cure.

Vetting in Colombia can be...somewhat gloomy for those unfamiliar with Latin American culture and politics, and degrees of corruption among its nations. Skeletons fall in avalanches out of closets.

Santos made his announcement on Monday. His will be a transitional presidency.

I do not speak for the USG here, but part of his attractiveness is the relatively - relatively - immaculate interior of HIS closet.

Israel will be better served by making, and more importantly, controlling, their own bunker busters. Nothing on the list should particularly challenge them regarding r&d or production. Then they can sing, "Ain't nobody's business but our own..."

PRINCETON, NJ -- President Barack Obama's job approval is the worst of his presidency to date, with 46% of Americans approving and 48% disapproving of the job he is doing as president in the latest Gallup Daily three-day average.

The Canadians blessed Bogota with a truly outstanding diplomat and all-round South American workhorse. He and his wife depart for home early this summer, and will be most sincerely missed. By everyone.

The Obama administration is poised to ban offshore oil drilling on the outer continental shelf until 2012 or beyond. Meanwhile, Russia is making a bold strategic leap to begin drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. While the United States attempts to shift gears to alternative fuels to battle the purported evils of carbon emissions, Russia will erect oil derricks off the Cuban coast.

Offshore oil production makes economic sense. It creates jobs and helps fulfill America's vast energy needs. It contributes to the gross domestic product and does not increase the trade deficit. Higher oil supply helps keep a lid on rising prices, and greater American production gives the United States more influence over the global market.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.